Voices in the Night
by Skylark Evanson
Summary: He only wanted to remember his mother's voice...


**A/N: Honestly, this was my first thought when Cesar was talking about the voice. I was just like, "There is no possible way I can **_**not**_** write this." Now like five people are probably gonna have the same thoughts, but I wanted to get to work anyways.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing at all.**

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><p><em>Voices in the Night<em>

Holiday had been keeping a close eye on Rex. She knew a lot of things had happened down in the desolate desert. ZAG-RS had resurfaced from a supposed death, and Van Kleiss had let a lot of things slip. Of course, Holiday hadn't heard of what had happened down in that pit of sand and death, but she could only figure that it wasn't good.

Rex had come out with a suspicious face and a certain darkness in his eyes. The doctor was able to read him like a book; she had raised him like a son, and she had grown to love him as a son. The woman was easily able to know when something was wrong with Rex.

It wasn't that she had an issue with it. It was more that she was worried about him on a deeper level. It was like some kind of ghost was haunting him. He was usually a little paler each day. That wasn't something that Holiday would ever get used to. His skin was a sandy tan, not a pale ivory. That wasn't Rex. Holiday knew him better than almost anyone else ever could.

She made sure to keep close tabs on him, watching his every move, keeping an eye on what he did when he wasn't busy. It was hard to watch him when he had a frequent habit of just vanishing whenever he didn't want to be found. The woman figured it was a habit that he had picked up either from his childhood or from the local chimp of Providence. Holiday had been trying to watch him, but he kept disappearing.

Then there was the problem of him not going anywhere near Cesar. Finally, the older of the two Salazars was stopping all of his never-ending work and the younger was pushing him away as if he had some sort of disease. It was sickening for Holiday to watch Rex, who had only dreamed of finding his family, trying to ignore Cesar by disappearing into the darker, more forbidden hallways of the Providence headquarters. The kid was leaving his brother behind, trying to avoid him without another thought.

Something had happened. And since everyone knew that Van Kleiss had been part of the nanite event, they all knew that Van Kleiss had a real connection to Cesar, one that was irrefutable. But what had been said in their moments of near death? What had been seen? Could anything really have changed so drastically to cause this sort of difference in Rex?

Holiday was always the one to ask the questions, never afraid to find an answer that she wasn't happy with. The doctor was quietly watching him, not just on security cameras, but she was using Noah to keep a close eye on him as well. Then there was the fact that she was having Six's eyes on him in the war zone, and her own watch was kept on him when he was still in at home base. There was always someone tailing him, always someone there with Rex.

But the hard part was watching him at night. Sure, he slept with a chimp in his room, but not even the infamous Bobo Haha was capable of following the EVO teen when he vanished into the hours of darkness.

So Holiday had taken it upon herself to stand a little ways away from his door, just enough to be unseen, and lay in wait for the chance to pursue him.

It was a little after midnight when the door emitted a sliver of silver light. The doctor pressed her body tighter to the wall, hoping her dark clothes would blend into the shadows of the black corners of dark halls. There was a long silence as a head of ebony hair poked its way out of the doorway. Rex's gaze scoured the corridors outside of his room, looking for signs of life. Then he took one step out; a confident air rose around him and with one stride after another, Rex was well on his way to the destination he flitted off to each night.

Never one to be left behind, Holiday was immediately following him on silent feet. Her shoes thudded against the ground without a sound. She was soundless like a specter of the night.

Rex was walking with his hands shoved in his pockets. His gaze was on the dull gray ceiling, and the boy was moving pretty fast. His footsteps echoed off the walls and off the floors. Eerie sounds bounced around like the sounds of the walking dead.

But Holiday was silent, following, stalking, watching. Her sea-foam green eyes were alert for any signs of him turning around to see her following under the cover of shadows. She didn't see him turning around, so she wasn't too awfully worried.

What did shock her was where he went. The room he went into was the one where the body of ZAG-RS was being held. Or at least the body of her. The doctor watched through the small window of the door after her adopted son had stepped in. She watched him sit down at the desk and give the keyboard a few little taps until the red eye of the massive robotic body lit up like a renewed fire. Her green eyes were stunned when she could faintly hear his voice filtering through the door.

None of the words were audible. She still didn't stop watching though. She knew she had to find out what he was doing in there, but she was going to at least try and listen. The dark-haired woman pressed her ear to the door, trying to listen to his faint words.

Inside of the door, Rex tapped a few more buttons until the voice came on. "Hello, Rex," it said.

He wished it was familiar to him like Cesar said it should have been. Unless that was a lie. He wanted to be able to recognize his mother's voice in a heartbeat. He wanted to be able to know that there was something there that he could believe in. Maybe computers were all he could trust now, but this one had part of his family embedded into it. Sure, he'd fought her in the past, but this was ZAG-RS rebooted. This was something that he wanted to try and understand. "Hi," he said back, leaning over the control panel and putting one hand into his ebony locks. Her wanted to listen to this and have his memories come back. A familiar voice always did it in the movies. Or a loved one. Cesar hadn't worked, so maybe the voice would.

But it wasn't. Another night and no memories of before. He wasn't angry, just upset. Rex only wanted to remember the past. He wanted to know what had happened. Before.

"How may I help you?" asked the machine that hung in front of him. The red eyes glowed like a bright crimson sun. The voice was still foreign.

The way Rex saw it, as long as he listened to it enough, maybe it would come back to him. As long as he kept trying, as long as he kept listening, maybe he would recognize it. And maybe it would recall some of its own memories from before. Maybe it could decipher the truth from the lies in his past. Who was really at fault? Who was feeding him lies? Who was telling the truth? Who could he really trust, Van Kleiss or his brother?

Blood stood good grounds, but Van Kleiss… They were close to death… The truth should've come out near death, but how far would he have gone to mess with the EVO teen's head. Making him question himself and those around him could've just been a mind game or it could've been real. But who to believe?

"Who is Cesar Salazar?" asked Rex, hoping maybe there could've been _some_ reminiscent of the past in her databases. Even if there wasn't a serious amount of information, he could at least maybe find something out about his brother that he hadn't been told.

ZAG-RS's response was, "He is my creator."

Rex groaned. So obvious. He hated it when people told him things that he already knew, but he hated how the robot thought that he didn't already know this. Of course, what could ZAG-RS really know? Nothing. She was just a machine, just a robot, no live thoughts, no recollections of the past. Nothing.

Then Rex asked, "Who is Van Kleiss?" He couldn't help but ask about his mortal enemy. How could he not ask? If the machine knew anything, he'd have more than enough questions to get what facts he wanted.

No response came from the robot. It was silent, red eye flashing as if searching for some sort of records in the hard drive. There was a long pause; it lasted for a minute, maybe two. Then the voice of the robot rang out, "No data found." The red eye gleamed a bit more, brighter again.

Another silence ensued, Rex going quiet. One of his gloved hands played in his spiky hair as the other stroked the keyboard. If only he knew how to play with computer programs like his brother did… The worst part was that he probably did know and that he just couldn't remember. If only he could remember… If only the voices in the night could ignite his memories… "Just talk then," he instructed, knowing that the robot would undertand.

And words just streamed out of the machine in a flood of that foreign voice. If only he could recognize the voice… He just wanted to remember his mother's voice, the one that Cesar had programmed into the system that had tried to kill him so many times. That voice had once struck fear into his mind, but now he just wanted to know where that voice had come from to begin with.

Holiday drank in a breath of air, leaning back against the wall as she heard ZAG-RS talk in mindless gibberish, no clear words audible to the point of understanding. But she could only figure what he was doing. Listening to a voice that had been lost to him for so long. The woman wasn't about to disturb him. Even she would give anything to hear her sister's normal voice again. So she would disappear into the shadows of the halls again, letting Rex listen and try to remember.

He only wanted to remember his mother's voice…

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><p><strong>AN: I was writing this last night and continued this morning, finished it off with a bit of a struggle so sorry if it's a little sketchy near the end… Reviews are appreciated! Thanks for reading!**

**~Sky**


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